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Brandy Reitter, the executive director of the Colorado Broadband office since February 2022, stepped down on Monday after giving the agency two days’ notice.
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“Yes, unfortunately, OIT received Brandy’s resignation. She will be missed and we appreciate her service to the state,” said Erin Jeffreys, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Information Technology, home to the broadband office, in an email. “Our focus during this transition is maintaining continuity for our CBO staff, stakeholders, and partners.”
Alison Terry, who has led the Governor’s Office of Federal Funds and Strategic Initiatives, will serve as the interim executive director until a permanent replacement is picked, Jeffreys said.
Reitter is credited with helping the state attract nearly $1 billion in federal funding to subsidize private development of fiber internet service, especially in rural areas that were neglected by private industry for years. This was a national priority during COVID, especially in rural areas that suffered with slow to no internet when workplaces, schools and even doctors moved online.
But under the Trump administration, terms changed last year for the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment program, or BEAD, part of a $42.5 billion program approved by Congress in the 2021 infrastructure bill during the Biden administration. The change deprioritized fiber internet in favor of what U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick called the “benefit of the bargain,” or cheaper services like wireless or satellite internet. Colorado’s $826.5 million award was cut in half to $420.6 million, and 50% of the locations identified as unserved or underserved in Colorado were awarded to satellite companies Amazon Leo and Starlink.
Nevertheless, Reitter navigated the touchy terrain and worked with local internet providers — including some whose original BEAD contracts had to be rescinded because of the federal change. Visionary Broadband, which focuses on building fiber internet, was one of those companies.
“We were awarded BEAD projects and then during the ‘Benefit of the Bargain,’ and discussions with the state, we looked at some of the projects that were hybrid that were fiber and wireless and trimmed those out because they did not make financial sense,” said Brian Worthen, CEO of Visionary Broadband, which builds fiber internet in rural areas of the state. “We’re subject to the whims of satellite pricing all the time. So it’s just easier to focus our efforts in the future on fiber.”
Reitter’s resignation came as a surprise to many in the industry, including Jon Stavney, executive director of Northwest Colorado Council of Governments. Stavney, a previous town manager for Eagle, has known Reitter before she served as Eagle’s town manager after him. The two continued to work together on broadband as the Northwest COG worked with more than a dozen mostly Western Slope communities to build “middle mile” internet pipes to connect rural Colorado.
“We’ve been very supportive and excited about Brandy’s leadership and feel like she has been an advocate through this,” Stavney said. “She understands us, not that she’s giving us any special treatment. She understands what we’re trying to do and having her navigate the state government has been really beneficial to this middle mile effort and I hope it continues.”
During Reitter’s tenure, the state has seen broadband access in rural communities improve to 78.5% of households getting minimum download speeds of 100 megabits per second and 20 mbps up. That’s an increase from 58.1% in late 2023, according to data from the state Office of IT. Broadband households in Colorado overall are now at 96%, from 91.8% in late 2022.
In her resignation letter dated Sept. 12, Reitter described the role as “the best job of my career” and that it “was a deeply difficult decision.” She was grateful to Gov. Jared Polis for the opportunity and praised industry partners, the state’s congressional lawmakers who fought for state funding, and the team of public servants she is leaving behind. Her last day was Monday.
In a reply to a reporter’s question about why she left, Reitter said, “We had made some good progress.”
Reitter’s departure comes at a tumultuous time for the Office of IT, which is undergoing a massive reorganization that laid off 173 employees in late May. The office has been facing scrutiny from the Colorado legislature’s Joint Technology Committee, with committee member Rep. Brianna Titone mentioned that she heard employees were “at their breaking point and are being overworked,” Titone said during the last committee meeting.
Sarah Tuneberg, who took over as OIT’s executive director in early June, said that surveys showed that existing employees were more “on board” with the agency changes than they were in March. The data shared by OIT also showed that the small percentage of employees who felt “stuck” had doubled in the same period.
Reitter didn’t mention any of that in her resignation letter.
“As for what is next, I am going to spend time focusing on the next opportunity and chapter of my career,” Reitter said in her letter. “Thank you again for the incredible opportunity to serve the state of Colorado.”
This is a developing story and may be updated.